According to ATTOM Data Solutions’ just released Q2 2020 U.S. Residential Property Mortgage Origination Report, there were 1.69 million refinance mortgages secured by residential properties (1 to 4 units) in Q2 2020. The report revealed that number is up almost 50 percent from Q1 2020 and more than 100 percent from Q2 2019, to the highest level in seven years.

ATTOM’s most recent residential mortgage origination analysis reported that with interest rates hovering at historic lows of around 3 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate loan, refinance mortgages originated Q2 2020 represented an estimated $513 billion in total dollar volume. That number was up 130 percent Q2 2019, to the highest point in almost 17 years.

The report noted that refinance loans helped drive the total number of home loans in Q2 2020 up to 2.72 million, an 11-year high. Homeowners rolling over old mortgages into new ones accounted for 62 percent of all lending activity in Q2 2020, up from 54.5 percent of loans in Q1 2020 and from 39.6 percent in Q2 2019.

ATTOM’s Q2 2020 mortgage origination analysis also revealed that residential refinance mortgage originations increased from Q2 2019 to Q2 2020 in all but one of the 211 metro areas that had a population greater than 200,000 and at least 1,000 total loans. The number at least doubled in 158, or 74.9 percent, of those metro areas, led by Madison, WI (up 403.7 percent); Hilton Head, SC (up 358.7 percent); Charleston, SC (up 322.4 percent); Greenville, SC (up 321.8 percent) and Lincoln, NE (up 269.2 percent).